Professional Service Contracts Training

What is a Professional Service?

To be considered as a professional service, a procurement must meet certain criteria. Professional services are procured under a statutory exclusion which establishes different methods of procurement. A contract which is procured as a professional service, when in fact it is not a professional service is subject to being voided.

A professional service is defined as a service that requires specialized knowledge and training (often through long and intensive academic preparation) or in-depth experience in a particular field or discipline.

Professional services are professional, technical, or consultant services predominantly intellectual in nature. They may include analysis, evaluation, predicting, planning, or recommendation and usually result in the production of a report or completion of a task.

Examples: The use of a designer to do layout work for a magazine is considered a professional service, however, the printing of the magazine would not be considered a professional service.

If you are procuring an established, prepackaged training session on video tape that has not been designed or altered for your agency, it is not a professional service. All other training is considered a professional service.

If your division needs a particular software program, you may purchase the program under a professional services contract only if the program has to be designed specifically for your needs. If the program is "off the shelf" and usable as is, the procurement is not a professional service.